ECCT elects new boards at AGM

ECCT members voted in new boards of directors and supervisors for 2018 at the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) Hakan Cervell, President of Ericsson Taiwan was elected to serve as chairman in 2017 for a second consecutive year by the new board of directors at their first meeting, held on the same afternoon as the AGM. (see below for full list of directors and supervisors).

At the AGM, ECCT Vice Chairman Giuseppe Izzo delivered an annual report to members. Besides the chairman's report, ECCT Vice Chairman & Treasurer Olivier Rousselet presented a summary of the chamber's financials while a report was also presented by ECCT Executive Supervisor, Mike Jewell. In addition, Thomas Jürgensen, Deputy Head of the European Economic and Trade Office, made some remarks.

In his presentation to members, Izzo reported that 2017 was a very successful year for the chamber with frequent engagement with government ministries and agencies throughout the year, helping to further promote members' business interests. Membership rose to a record high of over 860 individual members and the quality and participation at events remained very high. A number of successful events were held and, in terms of advocacy, the chamber saw a similar high level of progress compared to 2016. Over 18% of issues raised in the 2016 Position Papers were either resolved or saw progress towards resolution.

The vice chairman noted that the ECCT was extremely active during the year, holding activities which included Premium Events, committee meetings and government visits. High profile activities included the Europe Day Dinner, which was attended by President Tsai Ing-wen and premium, special and committee events which attracted high profile guest speakers from Taiwan, elsewhere in Asia and Europe.

ECCT members and the secretariat also arranged or participated in numerous conferences, seminars and forums in conjunction with government agencies from both Taiwan and Europe.
The chamber was proactive during 2017 in meeting with many high profile government officials. Dozens of meetings were held with government officials at the national level including the premier and major ministries.

As a nationwide association, the chamber also continued to build relations with municipal governments. During the course of the year, Premium Event lunches were held with the city governments of Keelung, Kinmen and Taipei.

Besides relations with the government in Taiwan, Izzo commented on the excellent cooperation the chamber continues to enjoy with the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan, representatives of the European national trade offices and institutes, and the European Commission in Brussels. He reported that the ECCT's annual Open Door Mission will take place from 18-20 December. A delegation of board directors, supervisors, committee chairs and staff will hold three days of meetings with EC officials, European trade and industry groups.

In his remarks Executive Supervisor Mike Jewell highlighted the ECCT's excellent relations with the government at all levels. He noted that the chamber had already established a productive and cooperative relationship with Premier William Lai when he was mayor of Tainan and a good working relationship with the recently-appointed minister of the National Development Council, Chen Mei-lin, in addition to regular contact and productive exchanges with all other cabinet ministers.

He emphasised that relations built up with the government over the past 29 years have continued to pay dividends in the form of progress on ECCT issues. Besides making progress on about 18% of the issues raised in the 2017 Position Papers, he said that the ECCT can claim much of the credit for the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals, which was passed by the legislature on 31 October. Many of the provisions in the act were placed there thanks to the prompting of the ECCT over many years. He added that the ECCT has been instrumental in driving changes to the Labour Standards Law. Thanks to numerous meetings with the relevant officials, the Executive Yuan had adopted many of the ECCT's proposals in making draft amendments to the law. If the changes are adopted this would benefit all ECCT members.

Besides relations with authorities in Taiwan, Jewell said that cooperation with EU institutions continues to strengthen. In particular 2017 was the fourth successful year of the EU-Taiwan Business and Regulatory Cooperation (EBRC) Programme funded and coordinated by the European Union and run by the ECCT. He pointed out that activities held under the EBRC have been very useful to both Taiwan authorities and ECCT members by providing up-to-date information on European regulations and promoting the best European standards and practices in Taiwan. He concluded that these developments all highlight the growing recognition and effectiveness of the ECCT as an organization.